Loss of GPS in the NEW A77II

You are right about all of that but there has to be some reason why Sony removed it. They didn't do it just to pixx people off!!! Maybe they removed it to add WiFi.--Tom

Every feature they add to a camera costs money. Designing, testing, and the actual part. The parts may only cost $20-50, but that's a markup on every piece, or a potential loss of that much extra profit.

Bringing the product to market, they need to weight what features are going to make it attractive to buyers vs. price. And compare that with competition.

What features the buyers want is really anyone's guess. They all want something different. Some will find one highly valuable, others will find it useless. Some will want things, and pay for them, without ever actually using them, but think they sound cool. Others will be get boisterous about never buying a camera with that, because they think it's silly and don't understand why someone would want it.

And the product team will have to make a guess and put it on the market. I don't think I'm under any illusions about how they make these decisions.

Having an A99 and all full frame glass (mostly old Minolta) the A77m2 doesn't particularly appeal to me anyways. And even if they come with a A99 with similar upgrades, I'm not sure I'd see the value in the new features to upgrade. But leaving GPS out, when I now have it, will deter me from future upgrades that will cause me to loose this feature, giving me better reason to keep using my A99. If enough people don't upgrade, maybe they'll put it back in the next version, maybe not.

But, they likely don't know who's upgrading vs. who new users are. All they can see is sales of one model with a feature vs. on model without it.